Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 15, 2025
At the mouth of the river await many large reptiles. Thus do they feed. The Wieroos do likewise with their own dead, keeping only the skulls and the wings. Come, let us sleep." "Do the reptiles come up the river into the city?" asked Bradley. "The water is too cold they never leave the warm water of the great pool," replied An-Tak. "Let us search for the way out," suggested Bradley.
When night came, he would return and fetch An-Tak this far at least; but in the meantime it was his intention to reconnoiter in the hope that he might discover some easier way out of the city than that offered by the chill, black channel of the ghastly river of corpses.
An-Tak shook his head. "I have searched for it all these moons," he said. "If I could not find it, how would you?" Bradley made no reply but commenced a diligent examination of the walls and floor of the room, pressing over each square foot and tapping with his knuckles. About six feet from the floor he discovered a sleeping-perch near one end of the apartment.
"Tell me," he cried, "what is cos-ata-lu?" "Food!" whimpered An-Tak. Bradley bethought himself. His haversack had not been taken from him. In it besides his razor and knife were odds and ends of equipment and a small quantity of dried meat. He tossed a small strip of the latter to the starving Galu. An-Tak seized upon it and devoured it ravenously. It instilled new life in the man.
He also was cos-ata-lu, twelve moons older than I, and all our lives we have been together." Bradley remained silent. So she loved An-Tak. He hadn't the heart to tell her that An-Tak had died, or how. At the door of Fosh-bal-soj's storeroom they halted to listen. No sound came from within, and gently Bradley pushed open the door.
In the next stage they became fishes or reptiles, An-Tak was not positive which, and in this form, always developing, they swam far to the south, where, amid the rank and teeming jungles, some of them evolved into amphibians.
When he struck it, An-Tak gave a cry of terror. Bradley held the light far into the opening before him and in its flickering rays saw the top of a ladder descending into a black abyss below. How far down it extended he could not guess; but that he should soon know definitely he was positive. "You have found it! You have found the way out!" screamed An-Tak. "Oh, Luata! And now I am too weak to go.
And then she told him briefly of all that she had passed through since the Wieroos had stolen her and of how Bradley had rescued her and sought to rescue An-Tak, her brother. "You are satisfied with him?" asked Tan. "Yes," replied the girl proudly.
Yet there had been a difference he recalled now the strange sensation of elation that had thrilled him upon the occasions when the girl had pressed his hand in hers, and the depression that had followed her announcement of her love for An-Tak. He took a step toward her.
If either of us must go alone, it will be you." Her face lighted to a wondrous smile. "Then we shall not be separated," she said, "for I shall never leave you as long as we both live." He looked down into her face for a moment and then: "Who was An-Tak?" he asked. "My brother," she replied. "Why?" And then, even less than before, could he tell her.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking